ID :
343117
Wed, 10/01/2014 - 06:38
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Party General Secretary leaves Hanoi for RoK

Hanoi, October 1 (VNA) - Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on October 1 left Hanoi for a four-day state visit to the Republic of Korea at the invitation of President Park Geun-hye. The visit aims to strengthen political understanding and trust between the two countries’ high-ranking leaders as well as promote cooperation between the two ruling parties and the friendship between the two peoples. Since Vietnam and the RoK set up diplomatic ties in 1992 and bilateral ties were upgraded to a strategic cooperative partnership five years ago, their relations have developed in a strong, comprehensive and intensive manner. The RoK has been one of the top economic partners of Vietnam. As of June this year, the country ranked first among foreign investors in Vietnam with 3,687 projects and came second in terms of registered capital with 31.2 billion USD, doubling the 2008 figure. The RoK is Vietnam’s third largest trade partner with two-way trade reaching 27.5 billion USD last year, quadrupling the 2007 level. The two countries set to raise bilateral trade to 70 billion USD by 2020 and are actively finalising negotiations towards the early signing of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The RoK is also the second largest donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, after Japan, with a committed amount of 1.2 billion USD for the 2012-2015 period. As many as 120,000 Vietnamese are living and working in the RoK, including 50,000 Vietnamese-Korean couples. The RoK community in Vietnam also numbers around 120,000.-VNA

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